Blog Archives

I cannot pinpoint the exact day that I fell in love with ships and the sea. But I can tell you that in my journey, there were three ships that really captured my soul. The USS Wahoo, the USS Hornet, and the USS South Dakota. The Navy has a tradition of naming new ships for previous ships. Thus the second Hornet started life as the USS Kearsarge. A name carried on today by an amphibious carrier. The Wahoo had a second boat named for her, but until this past week, none of the three had a current ship carrying their name.

The Hornet is actually two ships, different in classes, different in fate, but united by her name and by their glories. Yesterday we learned that M/V Petrel, the wreck hunting ship that Paul Allen had built found the first Carrier, USS Hornet.

Last week, the newest Virginia Class submarine joined the fleet. And she carries not only the name but her Ships seal reminds us of the glory of her namesake.

In June of 2017, I was stunned by how many people who had never been to sea on a Warship and never stood a deck watch felt the need to inform me that there was no way that the USS Fitzgerald collision was not a terrorist attack. You see, with all that equipment there was no way in hell that they didn’t see the CRX Crystal coming, and if they didn’t it was because the Russians had hacked them. “It was an attack, Dave!” they screeched.

There’s an old saying, Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.

The Navy, which tried to suppress the report on the collision, has at last been compelled to admit what every sailor already knew. There was no attack. There was a failure of leadership.

Doesn’t it seem strange that after Thanksgiving, Navy Blue Thursday, Black Friday, small business Saturday, Football Sunday and Cyber Monday, we finally get around to “Giving Tuesday?” Even the idea of giving has become commercialized to the point where it needs its own day and marketing campaign…

Some members of the so-called “Migrant Caravan” decided to charge the border at San Ysidro, only to be repulsed with Tear Gas. Tear gas is forbidden to use in a war so this cannot be an “invasion.” But where do we go from here? Nobody has any answers, just a bunch of angry yelling…

Russia and Ukraine are at it again. Russia is just going to keep slicing off pieces of salami until it gets what it wants or they cross a red line that actually matters. The real question is whether or not we are willing to send our men and women into combat against Russia for Ukraine?

The landing on Mars reminds us that the spirit of exploration is alive and well, even if the challenges remaining to be overcome seem daunting…